Don't Let Me Burn
by ConcreteAngelRoxHerHalo
Summary: This new world is so confusing, but they make it make sense. Dystopian/Apocalyptic AU. Eponine/Enjolras and Marius/Cosette.


**This is a retaliation for La Patron Minette's 'Your Invisible Girl'. We are now in an official fic war. (This AU is loosely based on La PM's unpublished book)**

* * *

There were six people in each house. Enjolras was put in a house with Combeferre from Boston, Joly from Washington, Cosette from Florida, Feuilly from Georgia and Bossuet from Alabama. He was from New York, a slightly unemotional white boy who found a confidant in Combeferre.

The house next to theirs was often in shambles. At night, either loud laughter or shouting would break the quiet night, causing Enjolras to mumble angrily into his pillow. Although, the loudness of the neighbors keeps his memories from taking over.

* * *

_He remembers his mother, bloodied and barely breathing, reaching for him. His father is already dead on the ground. He tries to take her hand with his own trembling one, but there's a final gunshot from the shadows and she collapses to the ground._

* * *

However, in the mornings all of them were annoyed. Even mild-tempered Combeferre came trampling down the rickety stairs with bags under his eyes and a scowl on his face (Paired with his warm brown eyes it was a strange look indeed).

They've only been there in that place for three days when Enjolras decided that he'd had enough. He stomped over the small square of grass allotted to each house and bangs his fist on the door. He heard a scramble from within the house, indicating an argument over who was to answer the door.

Once that bland door opened, his heart stopped. Standing there was an all too familiar figure. How he knew her…

* * *

_He is dragged from his house and thrown in an unceremonious heap on the ground. He is dizzy from a head injury, but he manages to scramble to his feet and run. He doesn't know where he's going, but it feels good to think that he can get away. He ends up bent over, wheezing, and standing in a bad neighborhood. _

_The houses here are burning too. He hears a loud, high pitched scream from one of the fiery shacks and he runs to it. Every boy has his hero complex and Enjolras's is more intense than most. He stumbles into the inferno, following the shouts._

_He comes around the bend to see a beautiful teenage girl crying and rocking a bloody boy. There are five bodies surrounding them and Enjolras thinks he sees a gun pointed from the shadows at the barely breathing child. He runs to the two of them and yanks her up. _

_The boy falls to the ground with a whine and, sure enough, a gunshot ends all sounds from the blond preteen. The girl screams and claws at him, but he grief makes her weak and so he tosses her over his shoulder and walks her out. _

* * *

"You." She hissed. Her dark eyes narrowed and she went to close the door, but he stuck his foot there.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm sorry about, you know, saving your life, but I need to talk to your roommates." He said, impatiently. The girl made no move to change their positions, and they stared the other down.

Finally she spoke, "You killed Gavroche."

"Your brother?"

"Yes." As if that news made his case more legitimate, she opened the door and allowed him to step in the house.

* * *

_The world is on fire. Enjolras had always loved the contrast of reds and blacks, but now all he sees are flames and ashes. His world blown to dust. _

_There are men in uniform, escorting a small crowd to cars. The crowd is dazed, they are all coming down from adrenalin highs and have no energy to fight. Even then, Enjolras's heart thumps as he's shoved in the back of a moving truck with a group of other survivors._

* * *

"Enjolras, I need to t-" Cosette came right behind him when suddenly she stopped, her blue eyes wide and her puffy mouth opened in an 'o' shape. Enjolras looked at the landing of the staircase, where he saw a brunette boy gazing down at Cosette as if she was something from a fairytale. The dark-haired beauty laughed hollowly at the display of 'love at first sight'.

"So apparently the two of you like to waltz in and ruin people's lives. Have a seat." She was bitter even as she offered them the floor to sit on.

"Hey, yo, 'Ponine, who was at the door?" A burly man-boy stomped past the wide-eyed one and promptly took a seat next to Enjolras, who winced. The floor shook beneath the human mass.

"Oh, just a pair of life ruiners." She said casually, gesturing towards Cosette (who was still transfixed) and Enjolras. The massive one saw the former and made a face.

"You can do better. I'm still single, right?"

"In your dreams, Bahorel." She snapped, but a smile graced her lips even so. She turned to Enjolras, all kind emotion immediately erased in favor of a frigid demeanor. "So, what do you want?"

"Um…" Enjolras felt awkward now that he was actually face-to-face with the loud neighbors. "You guys are kinda-" Just then, a loud yelp sounded from the floor above as well as a suspicious crashing noise. Enjolras rolled his eyes and continued, his motive encouraged. "Loud. Very, very loud."

"Sorry about that. You can leave now." The girl, 'Ponine, said, smiling tightly. She grabbed his upper arm with surprising strength and tugged him to the front door, grabbing Cosette on the way.

* * *

_When Enjolras's eyes adjust to the brightness after being in the dark truck, he's lost. It looks like a suburb, but there are no stores or schools. It's just rows upon rows upon rows of small, nondescript houses. One of the uniformed men gives him a number and sends him on his way._

* * *

"Just… Try to keep it down, okay?" He fitted in before she closed the door. She gave him pause, and then her head snapped up. Her eyes glinted with a mischievous glee and she shook her head.

"I don't think so, pretty boy."

Enjolras returned to his house with a dreamy Cosette. His spirits were both dampened and lightened. How that was possible, he did not know. Combeferre commented on it that night when they sat in a circle on the floor, listening to the rambunctious fun coming from the house next door. Combeferre swallowed a chewy chunk of meat (the food they received had no label and no taste, rendering it unable to label) and said, "Something's on your mind."

"No." he said, knowing in his heart that it was a lie.

* * *

Marius and Cosette became a pair, rarely seen without the other. Enjolras learned quickly from the small, russet haired girl her new boyfriend's name as well as his opinion on just about everything. He burned with desire to scream at her "NOBODY CARES ABOUT YOUR LONELY SOUL, COSETTE!", but she was too sweet for him to gain the gall to do it.

He decided immediately that he didn't like the boy. Sure, Marius was smart and well spoken, but he was very clueless and oblivious in the ways of the world (to be fair, in this new world of theirs, everyone was clueless).

Enjolras saw the girl again when she came one day to retrieve Marius for curfew. He was the one to open the door to her.

She was dressed in the plain top and trousers that they were all ordered to wear, but somehow the top molded to her slim body and the trousers hugged her thighs. The pale color made her tan skin and dark hair all the more prominent.

"Éponine." She said as a way of reason. He raised his eyebrow, causing her eyes to roll in her head. "My name."

"I'm Enjolras." He told her. She rolled her eyes _again_.

"I know, I'm not stupid. I'm here for Marius."

Something about her stuck with him, and he couldn't sleep on his pillow (the hardness of the cushion had nothing to do with it) or his mattress (of which the lumpiness did little). He couldn't sleep in general, even though the house next door was more tolerable in their volume.

He blamed Éponine.

* * *

He was the one to comfort her when they took away her friend.

The men in uniforms came early in the morning, and Enjolras watched from the window as an ugly, black haired boy was dragged from the house. The boy called Bahorel was holding back a screaming Éponine as she reached for him.

The next day, everyone was taken from their respective houses and brought to a large, empty space. The space wasn't entirely empty, though. There was a single structure that rose from the ground with an ominous air that chilled all of them to the bone.

It was a tall frame with a rope hanging from it, tied in a noose.

Enjolras found her in the crowd and grabbed at her hand. He didn't know why he did it, but it felt right. She looked up at him in surprise but made no move to remove their contact.

The boy was pushed to a platform on which he stood with shaking legs. A burlap sack was pulled over his head and a man read aloud, "Nicolas Grantaire, to be executed on the crime of alcoholism."

_The crime of alcoholism?_

It happened in seconds. The noose was wrapped around his neck and the platform tugged away, sending Grantaire down towards the ground. His feet were inches from the dead grass when his neck snapped, causing his limp body to dangle from the medieval structure.

Éponine stood there with her mouth agape and her eyes shining, unable to do anything. She made a choking sound in the back of her throat and Enjolras didn't hesitate to wrap her against him.

It was the first of many executions.

* * *

She came to him one night, her pale face lit by moonlight as she climbed through his window.

"They're insane."

He didn't have to ask what she means. The two of them, with the assistance of their remaining house members, have been planning a revolt against it. He was the unofficial leader, the one with the grand ideas and equalitarian morals.

"You know why they're killing people, right?" Éponine asked, licking her lips. "Disease. They want us to be pure. I'm going to be next, Enjolras," He watched helplessly as her face crumpled. "I have asthma. They're going to kill me."

"No, they're not, Éponine-" He grabbed her face with his hands and made her look at him. "I won't let them."

"You're going to set the world on fire." She said, firmly, randomly. He looked at her quizzically, only for her full lips to quirk into a smirk. "Again."

"Again." He agreed.


End file.
